Positive psychology is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, building upon the good in life instead of solely repairing the bad. Positive psychology focuses on taking the lives of average people up to “great” instead of focusing only on moving those who are struggling up to “normal” (Peterson, 2008).
If you have been unconsciously "practicing" negative thinking for a long time, your body and brain can settle into a "negativity-set-point" that can create ongoing feelings of frustration, boredom, blandness, depression and hopelessness. Positive momentum, on the other hand, builds through the sincere intention to see and focus upon what you love about your life.
Positive psychology, one of the newest branches of psychology, focuses on helping people prosper and lead healthy, happy lives. While many other branches of psychology focus more on healing pain and dysfunction, positive psychology is centered on helping people become happier. Positive psychology studies what makes people thrive.
The founder of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman created the PERMA model. PERMA is an acronym for the following five elements of well-being. Take a look at the five elements of well-being to see what areas of your life feel undeveloped and what areas of your life are strongly developed.
Positive Emotions: Experiencing gratitude about your past, feeling contentment in the present, and having hope for the future.
Engagement: Achieving full present-moment engagement and creative "flow" with enjoyable work, people, activities and hobbies.
Relationships: Forming meaningful, caring and loving connections with family, friends, and colleagues.
Meaning: Finding and expressing a creative or spiritual purpose in life that is larger than you.
Accomplishments: Setting inspiring goals and taking action to follow through until you reach success.
With love,
Shelley